miller's donkey for they have
never tried it.

It is said, "The one who builds along the pathway has many
masters." It is like this with me. Those who have not ever been
able to speak correctly (to say nothing of translating) have all
at once become my masters and I their pupil. If I were to have
asked them how to translate the first two words of Matthew "Liber
Generationis" into German, not one of them would have been able to
say "Quack!" And they judge all my works! Fine fellows! It was
also like this for St. Jerome when he translated the Bible.
Everyone was his master. He alone was entirely incompetent as
people, who were not good enough to clean his boots, judged his
works. This is why it takes a great deal of patience to do good
things in public for the world believes itself to be the Master of
Knowledge, always putting the bit under the horse's tail, and not
judging itself for that is the world's nature. It can do nothing
else.

I would gladly see a papist come forward and translate into German
an epistle of St. Paul's or one of the prophets and, in doing so,
not make use of Luther's German or translation. Then one might
see a fine, beautiful and noteworthy translation into German.

We have seen that bungler from Dresden play master to my New
Testament. (I will not mention his name in my books as he has his
judge and is already well-known). He does admit that my German
is good and sweet and that he could not improve it. Yet, anxious
to dishonor it, he took my New Testament word for word as it was
written, and removed my prefaces and glosses, replacing them with
his own. Then he published my New Testament under his name! Dear
Children, how it pained me when his prince in a detestable preface
condemned my work and forbid all from reading Luther's New
Testament, while at the same time commending the Bungler's New
Testament to be read--even though it was the very same one Luther
had written!

So no one thinks I am lying, put Luther's and the Bungler's New
Testaments side by side and compare them. You will see who did
the translation for both. He has patched it in places and
reordered it (and although it does not all please me) I can still
leave it be for it does me no particular harm as far as the
document is concerned. That is why I never intended to write in
opposition to it. But I did have a laugh at the great wisdom that
so terribly slandered, condemned and forbade my New Testament,
when it was published u